What’s the difference between connotation and denotation ?

Connotation and denotation are easily confused, and the fact that neither word is particularly common in everyday use makes it difficult for many people to get a firm grip on the difference between them. While each of these two words has several possible meanings, they are notably distinct from each other in all senses. Denotation is concerned with explicit meaning, and connotation tends to be concerned with implicit meaning. The word home, for instance, has a denotation of “the place (such as a house or apartment) where a person lives,” but it may additionally have many connotations (such as “warmth,” “security,” or “childhood”) for some people.

Examples of connotation in a Sentence

Miuccia Prada, a connoisseur of vintage jewelry, has a collection of tiaras and subverts their formal connotations by wearing them for the day. — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, March 1997 Suddenly, Hsun-ching brightened. "So this is propaganda?" Alison did not know that, in Chinese, the word for propaganda literally means to spread information, and does not carry any negative connotations. — Mark Salzman, The Laughing Sutra, 1991 The word "evolution," with its connotation of unrolling, of progressive development, was not favored by Darwin; he preferred the bleak phrase "descent with modification" for his theory. — John Updike, New Yorker, 30 Dec. 1985 a word with negative connotations For many people, the word “fat” has negative connotations. The word “childlike” has connotations of innocence.

Recent Examples on the Web Santero mentioned that many K-pop fans actually prefer not to be identified as stans because of the often negative connotation stans have earned over time. — NBC News, "The year of the stan: How the internet's super fans went from pop stars to politics," 24 Dec. 2020 These bills might typically have some measure of religious connotation to them or might be flatly referred to as FADA (First Amendment Defense Acts) or RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Acts). — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Commentary: LGBTQ people are terrified for our future but committed to fighting injustice," 29 Oct. 2020 For example, avoiding words that invoke disappointment and replacing them with phrases with a positive connotation. — Tom Cooney And Crystal Faulkner, The Enquirer, "BusinessWise: Pandemic a chance to strengthen customer bond," 16 Nov. 2020 The tool then looks for words that have been ranked for their happy or sad connotation, counts them, and calculates a kind of national happiness average based on which words are dominating the discourse. — Casey Schwartz New York Times, Star Tribune, "How is everybody doing? Social media show digital trail of anxiety," 24 Oct. 2020 The word has a negative connotation and is generally directed at women. — Mary Jane Brewer, cleveland, "Medina Diversity Project program explores the impact of words," 23 Nov. 2020 The school song, adapted from early 20th-century minstrel shows, sparked heated debate earlier this year when a group of Texas players objected to standing for the tune postgame, citing the song’s racist connotation. — Dallas News, "Texas alum Matthew McConaughey: I say don’t change ‘The Eyes of Texas’, just change the way the eyes see," 31 Oct. 2020 To older texters: The dot-dot-dot can mean an indication of a new idea, with no negative connotation. — Carly Mallenbaum, USA TODAY, "Is your texting punctuation sending the wrong message? Yes. Maybe! Think so ...," 28 Sep. 2020 The tool then looks for words that have been ranked for their happy or sad connotation, counts them, and calculates a kind of national happiness average based on which words are dominating the discourse. — Casey Schwartz New York Times, Star Tribune, "How is everybody doing? Social media show digital trail of anxiety," 24 Oct. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'connotation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.